Wednesday, 1 March 2017

New Zealanders
care strongly about their environment. That is evident from general conversations,
and even the most casual perusal of the stories produced by major news outlets.
Environment issues always feature prominently and usually sympathetically.

Yet New
Zealanders are currently being short-changed when it comes to environmental
policy. The debate over swimmable rivers water quality comes to mind. How can
it be that in a country like pristine, green New Zealand (as we like to style
it) we have over time allowed our waterways to become so degraded that it is
now going to take at least 20 years of concerted effort to restore 90% of them
to a swimmable standard? And do we really believe that housing shortages in our
major cities are all the fault of our concern for the environment?

Equally, on the
other side of the ledger, environmental dogmatism, often from the Left, frequently
gets in the way of progress. The “my way, or the highway” approach they are
fond of simply alienates potential support for a particular cause. (A notable
exception at the political level is the cross-party GLOBE group, ably chaired
by the Greens’ Dr Kennedy Graham, which is working alongside the Minster for
Climate Change Issues on New Zealand’s response to global climate change.) But
such co-operation, sadly, remains the exception, rather than the rule. Too
often, environmental issues – which should be pervasive – are reduced to the
politically partisan level which means that frequently no progress is made on
their resolution, lest political credit has to be shared with Opposition
parties. It is remarkably and nigh irresponsibly short-sighted.

The prospect –
however remote and unlikely according to every opinion poll, published and
unpublished so far – of a Labour/Green coalition taking office in September has
had a number of spin-off consequences. (In Ohariu, for example, early
indications are that the deal between Labour and the Greens has backfired, with
support galvanising around the incumbent, and many previous Green voters saying
they will cross the line because of their misgivings about the Labour candidate
they are now being told to vote for.) More broadly, the Labour/Greens prospect
has raised questions about the future direction of environmental policy, given
Labour’s likely economic profligacy (few days seem to pass without another
expensive spending promise being made) and the Greens’ increasing focus on broad
social agitation, at the expense of their traditional advocacy for the
environment.

For the many New
Zealanders with a strong interest in sound environmental policies the picture
is now very depressing – and confusing.National’s
environmental shortcomings are clearly and regularly displayed – and their
communication usually mis-articulated. But the Left are no better. After nearly
a decade in the wilderness (more than two decades in the case of the Greens)
they are so desperate for power that everything else, including environmental integrity,
now pales into insignificance. Labour has no environmental vision, nor does it show
any interest in what the Greens have to offer on that score. Both seem to agree
that, for this election at least, more traditional social democratic issues
should be the focus, to the detriment of the Greens – and the environment.

Nevertheless, there
is a need for a political voice for New Zealanders passionate about their
environment, but at the same time committed to policies that will stimulate
sustainable economic growth to support the social infrastructure a progressive
and compassionate society requires. Or to state it more simply, a political
party with a clear head, matched by a soft heart.

UnitedFuture has
strong credentials in this regard. Not only has it used its political
influence, through its centrist position of support for orthodox economics
balanced by compassionate social policy to moderate both National and Labour
Governments over the last 15 years or so, it also has a strong environmental
pedigree, based around its support for the retention of the principles of the
Resource Management Act, and its practical policies to future proof our
environment for coming generations. The likelihood that the National-led
Government will be returned at the election is reason enough for UnitedFuture
be strongly represented there to provide the environmental balance, and to
ensure the strong environmental concerns of New Zealanders are well represented
at the decision-making table. No other party can offer that prospect.